


Yu-Gi-Oh: Final Destiny

by Mathemagician93



Series: Yu-Gi-Oh: Card of Sanctity [5]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! - All Media Types, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Canon compliant (with a few tweaks), Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Post Yu-gi-oh GX, Set in the afterlife
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-12
Updated: 2020-09-12
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:46:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26416648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mathemagician93/pseuds/Mathemagician93
Summary: Yugi and Kaiba have passed the torch to their successors and are enjoying their well-earned peace, but destiny has other plans. Fate may have dealt them a losing hand this time, but that still doesn't mean they'll quietly accept their defeat...
Series: Yu-Gi-Oh: Card of Sanctity [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1203583
Comments: 1
Kudos: 4





	Yu-Gi-Oh: Final Destiny

**Author's Note:**

> So, I should be upfront and say that at the time I wrote this, I wasn't exactly in the best place mentally, and that's probably why this turned out more depressing than my other works. I had been unemployed for a while and life was getting to me, so I may have taken it out on fictional characters. But it helped me pull through and keep writing my other stories, so I wanted to post it now that I've posted the rest.
> 
> I highly recommend reading those before jumping in to this one, as this story will spoil events of the others. I have it as an epilogue of sorts, taking place more than ten years after Dedication and around two years after the finale of GX.

Yugi gasped in shock as he came to in a strange starry void. The events of the past few seconds were a blur—the massive earthquake, Sakura’s screams, and then the rainbow light that had engulfed the whole building as he ran to his family’s side, all jumbled together with no clear pattern. However, Yugi’s innate power over memories and his own skills at puzzles quickly allowed him to make sense of the sequence of events—and the sheer power of the ambient magic floating around him quickly made him realize he was no longer on Earth.

“Yugi, what are you doing here? Shouldn’t you have gone on like the rest?” The despondent voice came from off to Yugi’s right, and he turned to see Seto floating a small distance away from him. It took Yugi a second to realize something looked different about the billionaire—which shouldn’t have been possible, because Seto’s body was a manifestation of his soul at the time he had forcibly dragged himself back from the afterlife. His body hadn’t aged a day in the past decade—so what was different now?

Yugi blinked, and the strangeness of the feeling caused an icy coil deep in his stomach. Acting on instinct, he closed his left eye—and when Kaiba remained in his field of vision the feeling of dread solidified. He had lost sight out of his right eye in the duel with Mahado over a decade ago—so the fact that he could now see out of it and Seto’s own words gave Yugi an exact picture of where he currently was.

“Seto, is this the afterlife? Are we dead?” Seto gave a sad sounding scoff. “I think we’ve both experienced enough to know that the word ‘dead’ doesn’t have as much meaning as people used to think. To answer your first question, this isn’t the afterlife—we’re in the gap between the world of the living and the afterlife though. That golden portal above you will take you back to Earth if you want to go back.”

Yugi looked up to see a golden circle floating in the sky before the meaning behind Seto’s words caught up with him. “What do you mean, if _I_ want to go back? Seto, why wouldn’t you go back as well?”

“Yugi, I’ve basically been dead for over a decade. I clawed my way out of here the first time to be able to spend time with my family—but that’s not something I can do on Earth anymore. Whatever caused those earthquakes also destabilized my body—the magic holding me together must have reversed, because I exploded. Arthur, Mokuba, Sara, and Rebecca were all with me at the time—and I’ve already seen their souls move further down the tunnel.”

Kaiba gestured ahead of himself to point the direction the souls of his loved ones had gone, and Yugi found himself blinking back tears. He subconsciously used his power to reach out across the bond with all of his loved ones—but the only presence he recognized through the golden portal was Jaden. Everyone else’s presence was coming from the direction Kaiba had pointed.

“Looks like it isn’t just your family. What even happened? How did so many people end up dying today?”

Seto scowled. “Best guess, Fudo wasn’t able to shut down the Momentum project and some idiot removed all of the safety restrictions that were the reason I delayed investigation into that energy source in the first place. I hope whoever is responsible for this lives long enough to see everything they were working for disappear right in front of their eyes.”

Any response Yugi would make was drowned out in the sound of a distant rumbling. Looking down, the two great duelists saw approaching spots of orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet—though spots seemed to be a misnomer as they rapidly grew in size to the point where Yugi could make out their shapes. It appeared whatever was coming consisted of a hummingbird, a monkey, a lizard, a humanoid, a whale, and a bird of prey. As they drew closer, the rumbling became more distinct, settling into a multitude of voices.

_“Uru’s host has opened the gate!”_

_“After 5000 years, we are free!”_

_“Death to the Crimson Dragon!”_

_“Let us feast once more on the souls of humanity!”_

Yugi and Seto’s eyes hardened at the statements. A cold smirk found its way onto Seto’s face. “Well, looks like whatever they did back on Earth was for the purpose of bringing these things topside. Looks like I’ll be able to get revenge from here after all. Come forth, Blue-Eyes!”

Even though he had seen Seto summon monsters before, the speed with which the dragons answered his call—as well as the size of the army—left the King of Games speechless. To counter the six approaching figures, Seto had summoned nine Blue-Eyes White Dragons, three Blue-Eyes Alternative White Dragons, two Blue-Eyes Chaos Max Dragons, two Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragons, a Neo Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, and a Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon. It seemed his call had reached the dragons that had guarded his wife and nephew in addition to his own, but the approaching monsters were undeterred.

Now that they were closer, Yugi started noticing something about their individual auras—a familiar feeling he had last felt in the Ceremonial Battle when facing down the three Egyptian God cards. “Sorry, Seto, but I’m afraid I’m going to need to cut in. There’s six of them coming at us, and I wouldn’t be the King of Games if I couldn’t take out at least three of them.”

Yugi reached out to his monsters and felt the characteristic drain that came from materializing spirits. However, Seto was not impressed. “Do you even hear yourself talk sometimes? I highly doubt your little harem of magical girls will be able to keep up with my dragons.” Yugi glanced to the monsters he had summoned and realized Seto had a point—the number of monsters he had summoned was much lower than he had been aiming for, consisting only of Berry Magician Girl, Lemon Magician Girl, Apple Magician Girl, Chocolate Magician Girl, Kiwi Magician Girl, Dark Magician Girl, Magician’s Valkyria, Silent Magician, Silent Swordsman, and Dark Magician.

“Why don’t you just ask your Blue-Eyes Chaos Max Dragon what happens when you underestimate a Magician Girl in battle? Besides, it’s not my fault you’re the only one who got any formal magic training.” It also didn’t help that Yugi had used up all of his magic two years ago in order to send Jaden back in time to duel a younger Yugi—and more importantly Atem. It was nearly impossible to regain magical power on Earth, but it had been worth it in order to bring Jaden back to himself after his adventures in Duel Academy almost broke him. Such a move might be even more important now that Jaden might be the only duelist alive who could save the world. There would be another in the future, but Yusei Fudo was still a newborn and nowhere near the level of power he would be when he would eventually chase down Paradox through the timestream.

“Quit making excuses, Yugi. This isn’t a duel that’s going to be bound by the rules of a card game. You’ll need to fight power with power. There’s magic all around you here—use it to your full extent!” As Seto shouted this out, he summoned forth even more of the monsters that had once been in his deck. Yugi reached out and tried to get a firmer grasp of the ambient energy around him and reach out to more monsters and was rewarded with a much greater turnout—although Seto scoffed at the Kuriboh and Marshmellon that hung around Yugi as a last line of defense.

By this time, the figures had stopped approaching, and Yugi got a sense of how fast they were moving just by how large these monsters were. They easily dwarfed even the Egyptian God monsters in size, though their aura was closer to the Wicked Gods. The bird of prey seemed to be the leader, as it took point on the formation. Although it made no movements with its beak, its voice projected directly into Seto and Yugi’s minds.

_“You dare stand in the way of us? What chance do mere mortals stand against the Earthbound Immortals?”_

Seto managed his first laugh since his family had died. “So, you think we’re just mere mortals? I love it when that happens. It’s always the most satisfying when I beat something with a god complex—though I should point out that Yugi and I also have quite the record of defeating gods themselves as well.”

His words triggered a charge from the so-called Earthbound Immortals, with the army of monsters Seto and Yugi had amassed firing their long ranged attacks to repel the charge. However, though the Earthbound Immortals were pushed back by the attacks, they didn’t appear to take any damage.

_“Fools! The attacks of mortal monsters cannot harm us! Resistance is futile—you cannot defeat us!”_

Yugi wasn’t quite sure if he should trust that bragging, but ultimately he wasn’t sure it mattered. “Maybe you’re right—but we don’t have to beat you to win. All we have to do is stall you—the more time you spend fighting us, the longer the people of Earth can live in safety. We’re already dead—what does it matter if we spend years holding you back?”

* * *

Unfortunately, for all of their optimism and skill, Seto Kaiba and Yugi Muto were only human. Faced with the full power of the Earthbound Immortals, their strength eventually gave out and let the creatures cross over into the world of the living. Though nobody alive was aware of the battle, the two greatest duelists in history bought seventeen years for those destined to turn back the Earthbound Immortals to be born and mature.

* * *

_Kaiba and Muto Families Confirmed Dead in Zero Reverse Incident_

_Written by Hiroto Nagisa_

_Death tolls from the Zero Reverse incident continue to rise as more victims are reported. The incident which devastated much of Domino City with earthquakes and split the historic district from the rest of the city into the island of Satellite will likely go down as the deadliest disaster in recent memory._

_Since the island of Satellite is still quarantined in case of radiation damage due to the failure of the Momentum reactor, the final count of casualties will likely be unknown until much later. However, two of the most well-known figures in Domino City have now been confirmed to be among the deceased._

_Yugi Muto, famous as the King of Games for his prowess in Duel Monsters, was in the historic district of Domino City for the 15 th year reunion of his high school graduation. He was joined by his wife, T_ _éa Muto, and his six year old daughter Sakura Muto, who have also been confirmed dead in the disaster._

_In addition, Mokuba Kaiba, CEO of Kaiba Corporation is confirmed dead after the earthquakes damaged Kaiba Corporation headquarters. The impact of Kaiba Corporation on Domino’s history cannot be understated, so we are all mourning the loss of its leader. Also confirmed dead are Mokuba’s wife Rebecca Kaiba, their four-year-old son Arthur Kaiba, and his sister-in-law Gwyneth Kaiba. Seto Kaiba has been officially declared missing, but as he was confirmed to be with his family at the time of their deaths he is likely—_

The sound of crying pulled Hiroto away from his article. In truth, he was almost glad—in the wake of tragedy that struck a mere week ago, it felt horrible to focus on two families in light of the hundreds facing a similar tragedy. However, he had little choice—he had to write what he was hired to, and he was lucky enough to even get his job back after his retirement. He needed as much money as he could get—though he was facing his own tragedy with the loss of his son and his daughter-in-law, he was at least lucky enough to still have his granddaughter.

He knew this made his granddaughter luckier than most children her age would be—especially those born in what had once been the historic district of the town. Without the accident, those children would still have an uphill battle in life coming out of the poorest area of town, but now? Hiroto didn’t want to think about what children who were living on a devastated island with more than two-thirds of them living in orphanages would face as they grew up.

He was forced to put his musings aside as he picked up his six-month-old granddaughter to calm her down after she woke up from her nap. “Don’t worry, Carly. Grandpa’s here…”

**Author's Note:**

> So, in addition to being a coping mechanism, this story also serves to bridge into the 5Ds timeline. I figure something would have had to kill off Yugi and Kaiba before 5Ds, and Zero Reverse serves as a perfect example. I have to assume they are dead since KaibaCorp is seemingly run by Director Godwin in 5Ds instead of either of the Kaibas, and from BBT Yugi is viewed more as a legendary figure than "he's that middle-aged guy who lives in Neo Domino now". Since Ushio is in 5Ds we know it isn't a case of it taking place hundreds of years into the future, so I went with what I thought was the simplest explanation.
> 
> This also serves as my headcanon to explain why the Earthbound Immortals didn't appear until 5Ds, even though Zero Reverse blew open the gates of the Netherworld seventeen years beforehand. We know Uru got out and took over Rudger's body then, but why do the rest wait until the Signers are all born and able to fight? I figure something had to hold them up from crossing over, and so I wanted to have Yugi and Kaiba still be offering their support to save the world by buying as much time as possible.


End file.
